The ruling AIADMK’s factional feud and battle over disqualification of 18 MLAs loyal to TTV Dhinakaran will now be fought in the Madras high court, as the court has agreed to hear the case on Wednesday. Eight of the 18 barred MLAs rushed to the court claiming that their constitutional right had been undermined by the Tamil Nadu assembly speaker.
On Tuesday, a day after speaker P Dhanapal issued the disqualification orders and followed it up with an official gazette notification of the vacancies that had arisen by invoking the Anti-Defection Act, senior counsel PR Raman mentioned the case before Justice M Duraiswamy. Agreeing to hear it as an urgent matter, the judge said he would hear it on Wednesday. The MLAs who have knocked at the high court doors are P Vetrivel, Parthiban, Palaniappan, Jayanthi Padmanabhan, Senthil Balaji, Murugan, Muthiah and Balasubramanian.
Senior counsel Raman said the constitutional rights of the 18 MLAs to cast their votes in case of a floor test would be greatly affected if their pleas assailing the illegal disqualification were not heard on an urgent basis.
The MLAs wanted the court to quash the disqualification order passed by the speaker as unauthorized and illegal. The judge directed them to file a proper petition and said it would be heard on Wednesday.The speaker on Monday disqualified the 18 AIADMK legislators under Schedule 10 of the Constitution, which deals with the anti-defection law. Last month, 19 MLAs met governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and submitted separate letters withdrawing their support to chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami after the EPS faction and the group led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam merged.
With 18 MLAs disqualified, there are 19 seats vacant now. This means the assembly has only 215 elected members. The government needs 108 votes to prove its majority in the assembly in case of a floor test.Vetrivel, one of the disqualified MLAs, has already filed a petition challenging the showcause notice issued by the speaker ahead of the disqualification. Though it too is scheduled to be heard on on Wednesday, it has now become infructuous in view of the disqualification order passed on September 18.
This apart, another plea moved by DMK following which the court stayed conduct of a floor test in the assembly till September 20 has also been listed for hearing on Wednesday.